It took us a few hours of stuffing around but John and I finally got the Sparco seat and rail installed in the Riceline and also hooked up the Sabelt 4 point harness.
Satisfying stuff. It is very very red.
We figured out we could use the eye bolts that came with the harness to double as not only anchor points for the harness but also as points where we could still utilize the factory belt and buckle. Win and won.
For the drive up to Matsuri, I will be using the standard belt and the beauty of this set up is that I can clip the harness in anytime I like so I can keep it bagged up until we arrive at the circuit. I am a little bit concerned with the rake of the Sparco bucket. From the seat and strapped in tight, I can see the nose of the bonnet ahead but that angle doesn’t feel entirely right. We will see how we go I suppose.
The seat is a Sparco Speed Generation I and the harness is a 5 point, 3 Inch, turnbuckle “Top Formula A”, Sabelt job with matching pads.
Not much more to say really, so I will just leave this here for you.
Great shots as always from my friend Dino Dalle Carbonare who has really captured the Forester perfectly. Thanks also must go to Akihiro who helped me during a marathon 6 hour session to get the cars paint back to better than showroom condition.
The car will be on its way to Australia soon so it was really good to get it looking like this and for it to also get a grand sendoff. The new owner should also be very pleased and encouraged by what he sees in this post.
Amazing as it sounds, Michael Schumacher has confirmed he will be replacing Felipe Massa for the remainder of the season.
This news has taken everyone by surprise since Wili Weber said there was a 200% chance Michael would not return.
According to a Ferrari press release, “Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro intends to put Michael Schumacher in Felipe Massa’s car until the Brazilian driver will be able to race again. Michael Schumacher said he is ready and, over the next few days, will undertake a specific training program at the end of which confirmation will be given of his participation in the championship with effect from the European Grand Prix on the 23rd of August.”
Michael himself said that loyalty to the team and Felipe brought him back to the seat
“The most important thing first: thanks God, all news concerning Felipe are positive. I wish him all the best again. I was meeting this afternoon with Stefano Domenicali and Luca di Montezemolo and together we decided that I will prepare myself to take the place of Felipe. Though it is true that the chapter Formula 1 has been closed for me since long and completely, it is also true that for loyalty reasons to the team I cannot ignore that unfortunate situation. But as the competitor I am, I also very much look forward to facing this challenge.”
I am really excited to see the legend behind the wheel again. It has been a few years now since Michael retired so it will be intriguing to see if he still has what it takes both physically and mentally. I dont think he has lost anything personally and keep in mind the man is 40 years old so something like this is almost unheard of.
I realise that F1 has its large share of problems but this is a great boost to the morale of not just Ferrari but the entire paddock and the world that watches it.
I cannot wait for the European grand prix to be held in Valencia, Spain in 2 weeks time.
The German manufacturer will see out the 2009 season but will not be present on the grid for the start of the 2010 season. This is sure to raise questions regarding the sale of the teams infrastructure and movement of its staff but just as importantly, the locations of its current drivers.
I believe this decision may have just signaled the end to Nick “The Pikey” Heidfeld’s F1 career. There is no word of him replacing Massa at Ferrari and it is highly unlikely he will get the seat at Renault when they sack Nelson Piquet Jr. So where does it leave the quiet achiever? With limited options; that is where.
According to the hairy chested German, this came as a total back door raid to his F1 party; “BMW’s decision no longer to compete in Formula One was totally unexpected. I feel very sorry for the members of the team with whom it has been my privilege to work over the years. I would like to thank all of them for their tremendous support and for everything we have achieved together.”
Robert Kubica has a much better position as he is currently still in the embrace of Formula 1 as one of its darling speed stars. Offers are sure to come in thick and fast for the under-performing Pole.
Personally, I am very disappointed BMW has yet again pulled the pin on its F1 program. It is not the first time BMW has done this and you have to wonder when they will be back. History tells me it is only a matter of time before they return again.Historically, BMW has always shown a great aptitude and ability for getting in to the sport when it is at a peak and leaving it when it is in the dumps. Quite the opposite of Ferrari who is there regardless of the outcome. It shows BMW lacks the spine and wherewithall to weather the current climate. It also shows BMW’s motives. True racers like Sir Frank Williams and the Williams team do not quit when the going gets tough. BMW were always a financial operation – in it for the money and the glory but mostly from a corporate perspective; nothing more.
That is deplorable to anyone who truly calls themselves a racer.
No one can call in a plumber because their sink is broken and then as it’s getting fixed, tell the plumber how to do his job.
With BMW now on their way out the door, questions must be asked as to who will replace them. The FIA drew fierce criticism over its selection process regarding the grid for 2010 but with the exit of BMW, the door may have just been kicked open for the operations from Prodrive and Lola to recommence.
The FIA has also released a press statement saying that they saw this coming a mile off and even saw fit to have a stab at the FOTA alliance:
It seems that Flavio Briatore, a man who led Fernando Alonso; one of the greatest drivers in the modern era, and Renault to championship success in 2005 and 2006 doesn’t know **** about F1.
Well, according to a talentless whining son of a gun, that is. Nelson Piquet Sr. is probably having kittens – right at this moment.
As I am sure many of you already know, Felipe Massa is now out of the danger zone. Acording to doctors monitoring him, he has shown great improvement over the past 24 hours and is now out of his induced coma and was even able to converse with family and friends.
This is fantastic news and something everone was awaiting to hear.
What isnt going to be so easy for everyone to swallow though is the news that the injury may have cut short the F1 career of the affable Brazilian.
Doctors have yet to diagnose Massa regarding the injury to his left eye, claiming that, “We can give no positive neither negative answer to this, because at this stage the vision cannot be examined.”
Frighteningly, it has been found that the spring in question hit Massa in the head at an absolutely astonishing 162mph ( 260kph )
I for one simply cannot fathom how anyone can survive an impact like that but thanks to God and modern safety in F1, we still have Massa among us.
This should never be understated. The last time we lost f1 drivers, we lost 2 in succession, Roland Ratzenberger and of course the great Ayrton Senna. It appeared for a morbid moment that history was destined to repeat itself in some way and even more unsettling that it involved another Brazilian.
Further news to come as Massa’s condition gets updated.
I am currently in the middle of a very big dilemma with the Skyline. Not only did it cost too much initially ( Initial Drift! ) – 250,000 yen, it is still nowhere near finished.
I got the car without the important things needed to go drifting. It didn’t have a 2 way, didn’t have a decent clutch and pressure plate, no seat and harness, no meters to monitor oil, boost and water temps. It didn’t even come with a front mount inter-cooler or a boost controller.
I did get a shitty turbo timer, a GTR front bar with splitter that doesn’t fit properly and some really tacky rear overfenders that were screwed on to the car and left unpainted and not much else to be honest apart from the second hand parts installed into the exhaust system and a few suspension bits. For 250,000 yen you should get one heck of a missle in this country, loaded with everything to get you started.
Admittedly the car sounds great with the current system but it makes all that wonderful noise without really going anywhere quickly.
I went to the last Drift Matsuri in Ebisu with it basically stock and it ran great. The car left the place undamaged – a major achievement considering it was my first time and I was throwing towards Minami walls at 120kph. Beginners luck perhaps?
So fast forward 3 months and we have the summer edition of the Maturi looming large. For those of you that dont know about the Drift Matsuri, it is literally 48 hours straight of drifting madness – anything goes. You pay 20,000 yen and you then have access to 8 different courses for as long as you want for the next 2 days. It is dirty smokey, oily, high octane fuel and redbull charged, organized madness.
I relocated the car to Tokyo from Chiba and began sourcing the parts to make it do its job properly – parts that should have been there from the start had I been smart enough about the purchase.
I obviously need a few key ingredients and after contacting numerous people and consulting with friends I came up with this list of must haves.
Coppermix clutch plate
Heavy duty pressure plate
2 way LSD
Full bucket seat and rail
4 point safety harness
HiCAS locker installation
I started scouring the net for the best deals and after dozens of hours of research and phone calls to close associates found all the gear I was looking for. Some people quoted extortionate figures so it really does pay to shop around and play one seller off against another.
I managed to find a brand new Formula A 4 point, 3 inch Sabelt harness at my local Up Garage of all places. Has red pads to match too. Beautiful thing.
While I was there I spotted a brand new Sparco Speed racing bucket – also in red – on the top shelf over at the seat section.
Money quickly changed hands and I bolted out of there with a great seat and harness combo.
There was still a lot to do. There still IS a lot to do even as I write this.
I sourced a Kaaz 2 way unit in the R200 casing so a straight swap is now much easier…
So that’s the 2 way and seat equipment out of the way. One of my best friends from high school who also happens to work for a very high profile tuning parts maker in Japan put me on to a workshop that had prices I found hard to believe considering the quotes I was getting from others. In one place I was quoted 45,000 yen to fit the KAAZ. The place I am referring to though will do it for half that.
I was, as you can imagine, rapt. It got better too.
It turns out that this place does a package with their own parts and I could also get a coppermix clutch and pressure plate package with installation very cheap. This was too good to pass up so I have booked in with them for next week.
That takes care of 3 of the biggest difficulites I am facing but there is still a long way to go yet before it is ready to go for the August 8th drift onslaught.
Sadly, it appears that things have gone from bad to worse in a major way for Felipe.
While we all breathed a heavy sigh of relief after hearing the news that he was alive and able to pull through the horrifying accident that hospitalized him in the intensive care ward of Hungary’s top brain hospital, complications and conflicting reports have surfaced regarding his true condition.
Ferrari started with a blanketing press release, basically saying that there was no serious damage and that everything was fine; Massa only suffered concussion. This was an utterly senseless press release from Ferrari to be honest – we could all see that this was no simple shunt with minor repercussions.
And so it transpired that Massa had indeed been hospitalized with a fractured skull – quite the more significant injury compared to concussion – and an injury that carried with it far reaching and potentially fatal consequences if not treated correctly.
To bring things back to the point, Felipe Massa is now currently around 24 hours into a 48 hour induced coma.
Such was the desperation of the situation and the extent of Massas injuries that the cranial team at the AEK Military hospital in Budapest had to induce a coma; a very extreme measure, make no mistake. The positive upshot amongst all this is that the procedure is necessary and highly beneficial allowing the doctors to monitor him in a state where the body has effectively shut down or gone to sleep; putting Massa in a deep sleep is helping to ease and aid the body in dealing with the blunt trauma that is causing his brain to swell. Inducing a coma, in this instance, actually has the effect of acting like a pressure release valve for the brain.
The news though, does get rough again.
According to Professor Robert Veres of AEK hospital Budapest, Massa, ” …has suffered some damage to the eye. We don’t know if he’ll be able to race again. I don’t know if he can return. It’s too early to say about his future. We don’t know the extent of the damage. Without an operation it’s very hard to evaluate its function.”
So, it appears certain that Massa has suffered a serious left eye injury and although reports at this time are scant and cagey to say the least there is speculation that the Brazilians career may be over due to this injury.
I for one certainly hope this is not the case and that Felipe makes a strong return to the cockpit but the stark reality is that without proper vision Massa cannot race and this will indeed mean that his career in F1 will be over.
Let us all hope he pulls through for a full recovery.
He should be dead, Felipe, you know? The reaper has nothing on the Ferrari driver. God waved his hand and Massa lived. That he lived is a divine miracle and one I am obviously grateful for. The mere centimeters between Felipe Massa and death today were frighteningly, excruciatingly close – that much is true for all to see.
Observe this photo if you will.
Them observe this screen shot from the video below…
Massa’s face was almost smashed in from the impact – now suffering a cut, blackened, swollen and bleeding left eye, not to mention a fractured skull - you can see the massive chunk of carbon kevlar that has been gouged out of the helmet when the debris hit him at more than 200kph.
A single solitary centimeter in virtually any direction and we would all have to be burying and mourning for another beloved Brazilian.
That is a terrifying photo and Felipe Massa is one of the luckiest individuals currently living. Make no mistake about it.
The video is just as sobering.
At 23 seconds the cylindrical object has struck Massa in the head, knocking him out cold. This was vision slowed down as well. Think about that. In all honesty, when people tell me to buy helmets based on appearance over safety I have to question whether or not these people have anything up there to protect.
I can inform you all now that the object was a 5 INCH LONG METAL SPRING from the rear suspension of the Brawn F1 cars.
According to James Allen, he reported; ‘I’ve spoken to someone who has held the spring in question and it is around five inches long, coiled metal and quite heavy. Massa is incredibly lucky to have survived an impact like that with only light injuries.
In a world where danger for racing drivers is always as close as the next bend, the whole world got another frightening reminder this afternoon as to why motor sport can potentially prove fatal for every one that is involved.
In Q3 for the Hungary F1 GP, Felipe Massa was on his first hot lap just after the session had started when he mysteriously and inexplicably left the road at full speed, hitting the barriers head on at over 230kph.
At first, it looked like a totally bizarre and confusing accident. Watching it happen live, I wondered what would cause Massa to miss the sequence of corners and make a dead straight line for the barriers at that speed. The front tyres were on full lock and yet he was hard on the gas. On-screen graphs proved as much.
Massa slammed into the tires and chaos ensued. Rescue teams took a long while to stabilize Massa and extricate him from the wreck.
The mangled bent Ferrari was eventually removed allowing the marshals to rebuild the damaged tyre wall.
Boards and forums around the world lit up with messages of idiocy and truth, mixed with speculation and ignorance. No one knew what had happened.
Then, finally, after 10 minutes, the replay was shown. And it all became horrifyingly clear that this was no ordinary accident.
This was the same type of freak occurrence that had tragically and cruelly cut short the life of 18 year old Henry Surtees. The type of accident that no one can do anything about. The type of accident that reminds us all that the sport we all love can be fatal for your health.
Like I said – Felipe Massa is extraordinarily lucky to be alive.
Ferrari released this statement moments ago…
“After the accident during the qualifying session of the Grand Prix of Hungary, Felipe Massa was airlifted to the AEK hospital in Budapest. Felipe was conscious at the arrival at the hospital and his general conditions remain stable. Following a complete medical examination it emerged that he had suffered a cut on his forehead, a bone damage of his skull and a brain concussion. These conditions need to be operated on after which he will remain under observation in intensive care.”
I wish Felipe the speediest of recoveries and want to see him back in the saddle as soon as possible. I also wish to extend my condolences to the Massa family for this shocking accident.
He’s still with us and that is the main thing.
When we will see Massa behind the wheel again is a mystery but we all hope it is sooner rather than later. Let us all just hope this freak accident doesn’t ruin his racing career for good.
Henry Surtees, 18 years of age and son to the only man to ever win world championships on 2 and 4 wheels, John Surtees, died Sunday in the F2 event at Brands Hatch in a freak accident involving a rogue wheel that flew across the track after fellow competitor Jack Clarke’s collision with the barriers at Westfield bend. The wheel caught Surtees square on in the head, instantly knocking the Englishman unconscious. The Williams built F2 then proceeded straight on through Sheene corner where the car collected the barriers, spinning to a halt. Safety crews responded immediately, extracating Surtees. Henry was stabilized then airlifted to Royal London Hospital where he was operated on by emergency teams.
Sadly, the injuries to his brain proved fatal and Surtees passed away later that same day.
My thoughts are with the Surtees family at this difficult time and the whole motorsport fraternity is mourning the freakish and tragic loss.
